Herbs for Pets

Domestic pets need supplements because they are not part of the wild food chain in nature, which would supply them everything they need. Many domestic animals now suffer the same diseases that are suffered by humans, and pets can benefit from herbal supplements to help prevent these problems.

Usually when a pet has an upset stomach, it will try to find some grass to chew on. When your carnivorous pet chews on grass, it is because he is craving the chlorophyll from the green blades. Chlorophyll is rich in nutrients and minerals. You can put some liquid chlorophyll in your pet’s water dish in the winter, when there might not be any grass available to munch on.

I tried an experiment with my own two dogs and chlorophyll: One had definite digestive troubles, and the other was lacking minerals, as recognized by his creaking joints. I set out three bowls of water, one with chlorophyll added, one with aloe vera added, and one just plain. After smelling each one, the dog that had arthritis drank up
the chlorophyll. The one with digestive troubles chose the aloe vera. From then on, I
added these to their water, with good results, including taking away my dogs’ dog breath. The one with stiff joints seemed more limber, and the other was less gaseous—both made my home life much more pleasant.

Of course, liquid herbs are the easiest to administer to pets. You can also coat tablets or capsules in butter or some other food to get your dog to eat them. Most of the time they won’t even know you have slipped them an herb! Cats are pickier eaters, so it may be wise to forget your carefully hidden pill placement and administer their herbs via a liquid or tincture.

The next table lists some common pet problems and some simple remedies you can use to help. Who knows, by feeding your dog herbs, you just might be able to teach an old dog new tricks!

A Childish Look at Herbs for Kids

Children generally respond very well and quickly to herbal remedies. This is because their bodies are small, and they haven’t had years of polluting themselves to compensate for.
Children also usually respond better to single herbs versus herbal combinations; babies respond best to a single herb in a liquid form. The older they are, the better able children are to take a few different combinations. Herb manufacturers make chewable or liquid herbs that are easy to administer to children. Make sure that your child’s chewable herbs or vitamins are not sweetened with artificial flavors and colored with dyes! The same quality that you find in your herbs apply to children’s supplements as well. Artificial and synthetic materials are more likely to cause reactions in a child’s body.

The same herbs that work gently for adults are also appropriate for kids. The following table includes several herbs that are ideal for children and that can be used safely in herbal remedies.
A good rule of thumb for discerning dosages for children is given here by Master Weight of child in pounds = fraction of adult dose to be used

Example: The average weight of an adult is 150 pounds. Divide the weight of the child
by 150.

50 pound child/150 pound adult = 1/3 of the adult recommended dosage

When administering herbs to your children, it is best to start out with small doses and work your way up until results are achieved.

Shaping Up After Pregnancy with Herbs

Although nursing your baby will help you burn up more calories and swing your body back in to shape more quickly, some moms still need a little quicker boost after baby is weaned.
Herbs to help get your body back into shape will include herbs that act as appetite suppressants and fat burners that increase thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is the process of raising body temperature to speed up the body metabolism, which in turn helps your body burn more calories.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to cleanse before you were pregnant and nursing, after you are done nursing is a great time to go on a good cleansing. A weight-loss program following a good cleanse is a way to give your body a jump-start—and you might just lose the extra weight with only a cleanse! Try Ivy’s Colon Cleanse drink recipe earlier in this section.

After cleansing, herbs can be combined and used for weight loss. Some single herbs used for weight loss include chickweed, psyllium hulls, lecithin, and ma huang. Chickweed acts as a mild appetite suppressant and is a natural source of lecithin; lecithin is a fat emulsifier; and psyllium grabs the fat from your foods before your body has a chance to absorb it. This is especially effective if taken 15 to 20 minutes before meals. For information on general weight loss.
Try these herbs to shape up with after nursing:

• Psyllium hulls
• Lecithin
• Chickweed
• Ma huang
• White willow bark
• Licorice root

Ma huang, a Chinese herb that’s also known as Chinese ephedra, is an herb that is best combined with white willow bark, which helps balance its effect for weight loss. Ma huang promotes thermogenesis and should never be taken with caffeine—the intensified “upper” affect can push your body into overdrive.

People with sensitive systems, heart problems, or hypertension can have serious trouble with this mixture. Responsible companies who have a deep understanding of herbology will not combine ma huang and caffeine-containing herbs in their products.

Herbs for Breastfeeding Mom

Breastfeeding your baby is one of the best ways to ensure a strong nutritional foundation for your child.
Babies’ benefits from being nursed include these:

• Helps build a relationship with Mom
• Supports a strong nutritional foundation
• Builds the immune system
• Supplies the healthy intestinal flora in the intestinal tract And for Mom:
• Tones the uterus
• Helps bond with the baby
• Burns excess calories
• Can serve as a relaxing experience A mom can enhance her own breast milk using herbs that also give her baby good nourishment.

Herbs taken during pregnancy should be continued during the nursing period to ensure proper nutrition for baby. Remember that all herbs, medications, and foods you take will be passed to your baby through your breast milk. So continue to eat well, and avoid taking any medications (unless prescribed by your physician), harsh herbs (see the following list of herbs to avoid), or very spicy foods because they can upset your baby’s very small digestive system.

Herbs you can add to enrich breast milk include nettle leaves, spirulina (rich in chlorophyll, amino acids, and enzymes), and alfalfa.
And, as my friend who has borne seven (count them, seven) children of her own and breastfed every one wanted me to let you know that a mom also needs lots of extra water (beyond the normal daily intake) because the requirement for water goes up when breastfeeding.

Using herbs for a Smoother Delivery

The proper use of herbs will assist you through the entire birthing process, for before, during, and after pregnancy. A combination used by many moms in daily small doses, five weeks before the due date is a mixture of black cohosh, squawvine, dong quai, butcher’s broom, and red raspberry. Moms who have tried it attest that the combination supported the uterus to carry to full term, prevented premature births, helped with the pain of childbirth, and decreased blood loss during and after delivery.
Search out this combination or have an herbalist mix you up a batch.

Every mom I know who has used it has reported excellent results. Consult your doctor or midwife before beginning to take this combination. Congratulations! Now that you used herbs to cleanse, build, and prepare your body for conception, nourished your body and growing fetus for nine months, and used herbs to combat pregnancy discomforts and aid in your delivery, you can consider your baby an herbal baby!

Don’t be surprised if you earned the “Earth Mother” reputation with your OB/GYN, especially if you decide to name your baby Herb! With all the efforts you put into your health up to this point, you will still need to continue this regimen during the nursing time for yourself and your child. Let’s take a look at why breastfeeding is such a fantastic and natural part of life, and how to enhance the process with herbs.

Herbs for Pregnant Woman

So, now you’ve done your cleanse and broken those bad habits and are feeling clean, trim, and clear. Next you need to begin to build up your body with nutrients.
Building your nutritional reserves with herbs rich in calcium, iron, and B vitamins will all work to ensure a healthy pregnancy for you and the little one. All these nutrients will be good not only prepare your body for pregnancy, but will carry you through your nine months and will even help nourish you and baby during nursing time.
If you are already pregnant and haven’t had time to build up your reserves, don’t fret! You can begin right now taking your nutrients. A non-synthetic pre-natal vitamin is excellent to cover your bases, and may be prescribed by your doctor. Your herbalist may have a quality source for you also. Compare your options and decide which is best for you. Make sure your prenatal vitamin contains extra folic acid and calcium.
Once a fetus begins to grow, the body will take what it needs from the mother. If you (as the mom) are not getting the right nutrients, your body can rob your body’s reserves to support the growing fetus. This can lead to uncomfortable symptoms and ailments.

Anemia is a common problem during pregnancy. To avoid anemia, you will want to build a good red blood count. Herbs that can help are rich in iron and include dark green drinks, such as liquid chlorophyll or wheat grass juice. Others are not necessarily green but also are rich in organic iron; these include yellow dock, dandelion, and nettle leaves.
We all know that calcium helps build strong bones and teeth, and calcium is a mineral that helps in bone growth during fetal development. Many believe that we need to drink milk to receive calcium. If this is so, then how do you think the cows produce all that excess calcium-rich milk and maintain those strong bones and hoofs without drinking cow’s milk throughout their life?

That’s right—the grass! The green plants provide much usable calcium for the body. Calcium-rich herbs safe for pregnancy include alfalfa, liquid chlorophyll, fennel, parsley, horsetail, and oatstraw. After you have constructed an nutritional herbal program to ensure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals to support a growing fetus, there are some extra herbs you can use to strengthen your body for the actual birthing process and to aid some symptoms that frequently accompany pregnancy. Let’s take a look at some common symptoms and their herbal solutions.
Red raspberry is an herb that strengthens the uterus and reproductive organs and can even enhance fertility. Red raspberry tea can be sipped during pregnancy and has helped many moms to overcome nausea.

Some moms get constipated during pregnancy, because the same hormone that maintains the pregnancy also decreases the movement of the bowel. One of the safest herbs you can use for constipation during pregnancy is psyllium hulls, or psyllium husks (pronounced silly-um). Psyllium is a fiber that swells in water and that acts as a intestinal broom, picking up and sweeping away debris from the colon. The colon is a muscle that needs fiber foods that strengthen it by giving it something to resist against during peristaltic action. Peristaltic action is the wavelike movement the bowel makes to move things along. Most foods we eat offer no fibrous content, so our colon winds up getting flaccid and lazy, making constipation and hemorrhoids (because of pressure on the lower organs of the body) more common. Psyllium helps keep you going (so to speak) and is safe for the baby as well.

One of the best herbal remedies for nausea or morning sickness during pregnancy is ginger root. Used as a spice in many Indian dishes, ginger also can be taken in a tea or capsules, and some people even like the taste enough to purchase candied ginger for nibbling. Ginger is a restorative herb, which means that it activates the body to bring it into balance.

Consuming herbs before pregnancy

You can again remember your ABCs to herbs before, during, and after pregnancy. Before pregnancy you will be cleansing. During pregnancy you will be building and after pregnancy, and when nursing you will be activating your body to get it back into shape again.
The three steps to herbally plan for a smoother and healthy pregnancy are:

1. Cleansing with the use of herbs
2. Nourishing (building) the body with herbal nutrients
3. Activating and toning the body and reproductive organs It is wise to begin preparing your body up to a year before conception. First, do some cleansing. An overloaded liver is usually the culprit that causes morning sickness, so a cleansing and building program for the liver and bowel can help prevent illness during those first few months of pregnancy.

You can use a wonderful general cleansing remedy designed by herbalist Ivy Bridge.
This cleanse can be used and should only be used well before conception and then
again after you deliver and have stopped nursing. Here’s the recipe, generously donated
by Ivy for your health:

Ivy Bridge’s Colon Cleanse

• 1/2 glass of apple juice (organic and no sugar is best, but use your favorite brand
• otherwise)
• 2 tablespoons aloe vera juice (if using a whole-leaf aloe vera you’ll only need
• 1 tablespoon)
• 2 tablespoons liquid chlorophyll
• 8 capsules psyllium hulls (or 1 teaspoon loose powder)
• 2 capsules cascara sagrada

Blend aloe vera juice and chlorophyll into apple juice. If you are using powdered psyllium instead of capsules, stir in the psyllium and drink down quickly; psyllium will expand in water. Swallow your cascara sagrada capsules with a full (at least 8 ounces) glass of pure water.
Use this formula mixture first thing in the morning every day for 60 days. Make sure to drink at least 8 to 10 glasses of water each day.

Ivy’s formula has been used by many to cleanse the lower bowel of poisons, strengthen the digestive and intestinal track, lower cholesterol, build blood, soothe acid conditions, aid fat loss, and stimulate bile flow from the liver.
In addition to this cleanse, one to three capsules/tablets of milk thistle (or ½ to 1 teaspoon of tincture) may be taken daily. Milk thistle helps the liver break down and excrete poisons, promotes bile flow, acts as a mild laxative, decongests blood circulation to the liver, and protects the liver cells from damage.

As with any cleansing, you may experience new sensations you didn’t know you could feel! Intestinal rumblings, stomach growls, initial intestinal gas, and many trips to the bathroom can all be part of the cleansing process. Use caution if you get diarrhea and cut back on your cascara capsules if you are too uncomfortable. The initial grumblings and mumblings of your intestines should settle down in a few days. Think of it as a power car wash blasting out years of built-up dirt. The cleaner you get, the less “mud splattering,” until finally you are balanced and internally clean.
The more positive effects you may feel include a lighter feeling, clearer skin, weight loss, loss of cravings for junk food, clean breath, and less body odor. The psyllium hulls swell in water, which makes you feel satisfied and less hungry. This is one of the reasons why many lose excess weight on the program.

After cleansing, you will want to begin a nutritious herbal building program that can be continued from up to a year or any time before conception, through pregnancy, and all during nursing. Let’s talk next about what herbs and nutrients are critical for a healthy pregnancy.